On June 8, 2026, gendarmes arrested Toufé Maecha, reporter for the privately owned newspaper La Gazette des Comores, at his home in the capital, Moroni, over his reports about the ill-health of a jailed former president.
The newspaper’s publishing director El-Had Saïd Omar was also arrested by gendarmes, or military police, on June 8, at the outlet’s offices. He was questioned and released the following day, before returning to the gendarmerie for further questioning.
On June 9, public prosecutor Saidatte Fatuma Said Boina said in a video that a judicial investigation had been opened against Maecha for his publications between May and June likely to “disturb public order and undermine social peace.”
Maecha was charged and provisionally released on June 10, but the judge banned him from “publishing or spreading, by any means, press articles” during the investigation, according to a copy of the charge sheet, reviewed by CPJ.
On June 8, Maecha published extracts from a report by a team of doctors appointed by the Attorney General to diagnose the cause of former president Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi’s poor health. They concluded that Sambi has heart disease, which requires a specialist X-ray that cannot be performed on the island, Maecha reported.
The ministry of information said that Maecha had published “specific elements of a confidential medical report, the possession and publication of which are strictly regulated by law.” It said the medical details were published “even before they were transmitted to the Prosecutor.”
Several prominent figures have called on Comorian President Azali Assoumani to allow the medical evacuation of 68-year-old Sambi, who has been in detention since 2018 and was given a life sentence in 2022 for high treason for enacting a law allowing the sale of passports to stateless people.